Playing Pretend
by Esm3rald
Summary: Elena is shocked when she discovers she has an identical twin sister whose apparent perfect life she has unintentionally taken over. While doing her best to juggle her sister's life, she realizes that finding out the truth about what really happened to Katherine would be difficult, especially when even the people closest to her may have had reasons to want her dead. Delena. AU/AH.
1. Prologue

**PLAYING PRETEND**

**Summary:** When 'Katherine Gilbert' wakes up about two weeks before school starts, in a hospital, with some bruises and first degree burns on her arms and legs, she has no idea what happened to her. Actually, she doesn't remember a thing, period. Everything is tabula rasa.

Her parents tell her that she has been found unconscious outside the Lake House that had went up in flames.

After two weeks her life seems almost back to normal. She starts school and even if she still hasn't regained her memories of the life she had before the 'accident', her family and her two best friends are there for her and everything seems great.

But when she slowly starts to remember things of a life that has nothing in common with the one she's actually living, her first barely there suspicions become certainties. The life she's living belongs to someone else, someone who was obviously identical to her, the real Katherine Gilbert. When she also starts to receive strange messages and she finds out that a lot of people have several reasons to hate her, Elena - what she found out is her real name - realizes that what was labeled as an accident is in reality anything but and that the person whose life she has unintentionally taken possession of - her twin sister's - is probably dead and that she may be next.

**Genres:** Mystery/Romance. Alternate Universe/All Human.

**Characters****:** Elena Gilbert, Damon Salvatore, Caroline Forbes, Bonnie Bennet, Rebecca (Rebekah Mikaelson) Michaelson, Hayley (Marshall) Gilbert, Jeremy Gilbert, Stefan Salvatore, Matt Donovan, Tyler Lockwood, Grayson and Miranda Gilbert, Elijah (Mikaelson) Michaelson, Alaric Saltzman, pretty much everyone.

**Main Pairing:** Damon/Elena

**Past Pairings****: **Katherine/Matt, Katherine/Stefan, Katherine/Elijah, Caroline/Matt, Rebecca(Rebekah)/Stefan, Andie/Damon, Jeremy/Vicky, Tyler/Vicky

**Other Pairings**: Caroline/Tyler, Rebekah/Matt, Hayley/Elijah(eventually), Bonnie/Jeremy(eventually).

**Disclaimer****: **I'll say this only once. I don't own 'The Vampire Diaries' (or 'The Lying Game' or 'Pretty Little Liars' for that matter) nor do I make money by writing this story.

**This story is inspired by 'The Lying Game series' but the plot for this story won't really follow the books even if various things will be taken from it.**

**It won't follow the 'Vampire Diaries' seasons either, it will be AU.**

**There will also be some elements taken from 'Pretty Little Liars'(the TV Show, not the books), the anonymous messages first of all, but it won't follow its plot either.**

**Damon will be a teacher in this story. Teacher/Student relationship guys, you've been warned!**

**Elena, Bonnie, Caroline and Rebecca(Rebekah) will be 18 in this story. Hayley will be 17 and Katherine's sister. Jeremy is the third Gilbert sibling and he's 16.**

**I made a trailer of sort for this story, though there are some spoilers in it. If you want to check it out, the link is this: **h-t-t-p-s:-/-/-w-w-w-.-youtube-.-c-o-m-/-watch-?-v=hY-QLbKG8k-(without the dashes). **It's called 'Playing Pretend - Vampire Diaries Fanfiction Trailer'.**

**Prologue**

_"Wake up, it's time, little girl, wake up_  
_All the best of what we've done is yet to come_  
_Wake up, it's time, little girl, wake up_  
_Just remember who I am in the morning"_

**_(Losing your Memory - Ryan Star)_**

She groggily forced herself awake. The strong light of the ceiling was hurting her eyes and she took a few minutes to focus on her surroundings. She was lying on something soft, a bed perhaps? Everything around her was blindingly white. She heard voices around her but she couldn't understand their words, everything was muffled, almost as if she was keeping her head underwater. She moved her hand slightly on top of the blankets but her arm ached so she stopped. The voices were starting to become clearer. Someone was calling her.

"Sweety?" A woman's voice was saying with a concerned, motherly tone. "Katherine, are you awake?" She tried to answer but her throat was parched and she suddenly noticed that her head ached too. What had happened to her? Was she in a hospital? Why was she there?

"It's okay Kat, don't try to talk. Take it easy." This time it was a man, his voice was deep and warm. She still couldn't see their faces.

"Katherine will be fine, right?" Another voice, this time younger, of a boy.

"Of course she'll be fine, Jeremy." Another girl's voice answered this time.

She tried to stand up a little on her pillow but her muscles wouldn't cooperate, she was feeling so weak.

"Katherine? No, no, don't try to move. The doctor said not to strain yourself." The man said. She finally saw their faces, eagerly watching her, obviously worried for her. They were all around her bed, waiting something from her. The woman was probably in her early forties, with long brown hair, chocolate eyes and a kind smile. The man was tall, in his late forties, with dark hair and dark eyes. The girl, probably sixteen or seventeen, shared the same traits of her mother while, the boy - who was probably fifteen or sixteen - had the same dark hair and eyes of his father. They were obviously a family. Their faces were completely foreign to her, nothing about them seemed familiar. And yet, they knew her. They kept calling her 'Katherine', but that wasn't her name, or was it? She had so many questions chasing themselves in her head. The woman came close to her. "How are you feeling Katherine? Do you need anything? Do you want me to call the doctor?" She whispered "Water" in a terrible, scratchy voice she didn't recognize. The man, closest to the bedside table, handed her a glass of water. The woman helped her settle in a sitting position. She sipped slowly, her hands trembling, her throat burning. "What happened? Why am I in a hospital?" She asked them once she finished drinking the water.

"You don't remember?" The man asked her. The girl, she noticed, looked worried, her eyes shifting from the man, to the woman, to her. Katherine shook her head in response but then stopped, feeling suddenly dizzy. She tried to bring a hand to her head but her arm was bound to the IV, preventing her movements.

"We were hoping you could tell us." The woman said to her in a kind voice. "They found you passed out just outside our Lake House in the woods three days ago, you've been in the hospital since then. The cabin went up in flames and you had obviously been inside because you have various first degree burns on your body. You don't remember anything at all?"

"No, I'm sorry." She answered in the end.

The man shook his head and said "Don't worry. We'll figure it out." He looked worried though and looked at the woman - his wife probably - for a moment before lowering his gaze on the sheets in front of him.

"What, what is it?" She couldn't help but ask. Husband and wife looked at each other once again. "Hayley, why don't you and your brother go to the vending machine and buy yourselves something to eat? You must be hungry." She noticed the boy opening his mouth, obviously about to disagree, but a look from his mother and a glare for his sister stopped him in his tracks. Hayley nodded at once and left the room with her brother.

"What were you doing at the Lake House so late? Especially all alone" The woman asked her.

"I don't know" She answered, confused. "I don't remember." She said in a whisper. What the hell had happened? And why couldn't she remember? "The fire, how did it start? What the police said?"

"It was an accident. The fire started because of a candle that you probably left burning. You must have fallen asleep and forgot to blow it out. The flames reached the window curtains and from there it just spread. Of course you know the cabin is made of wood from the most part, in a few minutes everything went up in flames." 'Wife' said. Her voice had started out strong but at the end of her speech, she was shaking and big tears were descending down her cheeks. "It's a miracle that you were able to get out at all, least of all almost unscathed as you did. You have a few bruises and some light burns besides a mild concussion probably caused by some tile piece that went down from the collapsed roof." She looked at her, upset that she was crying for her and not understanding why. Who were those people? Why they were so worried for her?

"Why are you crying?" She asked in a small voice. "I'm fine."

The woman suddenly burst into sobs and reached her side, hugging her tightly to herself. "Oh Katherine, we were so worried." The man patted her head but kept silent.

She didn't know what she was supposed to do. They obviously knew her so why couldn't she remember them? She tried to think about something she could actually remember but realized with a start that she didn't even know her own name. How old was she? Where was she from? Who were her parents? Anything? She started to panic. Obviously there was something seriously wrong with her.

"Maybe you should call the doctor." She said then, once the woman had detached herself from her. "Of course sweety." The man left the room in search for a doctor and she looked at the woman, trying to find the courage to tell her that she didn't recognize her. "So my name is Katherine hum?" Not the best way to start the topic but it was something.

The woman startled and asked shocked. "You don't remember your name?" She grimaced apologetically. "No."

"What else don't you remember?" She kept silent. "Do you know who I am? And your father? Your sister? Your brother?" She shook her head in response and lowered her eyes, suddenly feeling guilty. "I'm sorry." She heard the woman sob and she couldn't find the courage to look at her. She waited in silence for the man to return with the doctor, thing that he did a few minutes later.

"So Miss Gilbert, how are you feeling today?" She raised her head and observed the young, brunette woman in front of her, wearing a white coat and the metal tag that said 'Dr Fell'.

"She doesn't remember anything." The woman said with a strangled voice.

"What?" The man asked dismayed.

Dr Fell walked up to her and checked her eyes with a tiny flashlight and checked her values. "Everything seems normal."

"Then why she doesn't remember? She doesn't even know that her name is Katherine or that we're her parents. She didn't recognize her siblings.." The woman claiming to be her mother said.

"It's probably an after-effect of the concussion and there's also the traumatic experience she went through to consider. It's not unusual for something like this to happen. Sometimes the patients have partial memory loss, sometimes they remember everything perfectly well and sometimes, like in your daughter's case, they remember nothing at all. It's usually temporary though."

"Usually? It means that there's a possibility that she could never regain her memory?" Her 'father' asked this time.

"It's a very remote possibility. But yes, it could happen." The doctor said with an apologetic tone. Then turned her head to look at her. "So, how are you feeling, besides the memory loss? Do you need something for the pain?"

"My head." She simply said with a grimace. Everything was still foggy, she was feeling confused and her migraine wasn't helping.

"I think a tablet of Tylenol is enough for now. If the pain gets worse and you need something stronger, just call a nurse with the emergency bottom." She nodded her head as a yes. She asked the doctor when they were going to release her but Dr Fell told her that she needed to stay in the hospital for a few days, just as a precaution. After a few recommendations the doctor left the room.

The remaining occupants stayed silent. She sighed and decided that she needed to say something. "Maybe you should start by telling me your names. Maybe it would help me remember." Her mother's eyes shined in hope at her words.

"Of course, you're right. I'm Miranda Gilbert, your mother and this is Grayson Gilbert, your father. We live in Mystic Falls, Virginia. You also have a brother and a sister, the ones you saw before. Your sister's name is Hayley and she just turned seventeen years old. She will start 11th grade this year. Your brother, on the other hand, is called Jeremy and he's fifteen. You are Katherine Gilbert, you'll be 18 in three weeks and you'll start your last year of high school. You are an average student but your real passion is swimming. You're the captain of the swimming team at school but you're also a cheerleader. You have two best friends of your same age, Caroline Forbes and Bonnie Bennet. Bonnie is the best tennis player at school and a cheerleader while Caroline is the captain of the cheerleading squad. You've been friends since third grade." Hayley and Jeremy had returned in the room at that point and once the situation was explained to them, they put their cent in too. The four Gilberts spent at least two hours telling her things about her life until the visiting hour was over.

'Katherine' stayed awake for a long time after her parents and siblings left. She had so much to think about that her brain refused to shut down. Nothing about her surroundings seemed familiar, not even the view out the window. The four people that were supposed to be the closest to her were complete strangers. She didn't even remember the faces of her two best friends, let alone anything else about them. What had really happened to her in that cabin? Why she couldn't remember a single thing about her life? So many questions and no answers. She stayed awake for hours, thinking about everything her family had told her and trying to find something familiar in it but without success. At last, when the sun had by then risen on the sky, she fell asleep, exhausted. Her sleep was restless and filled with confused nightmares. When she woke up a few hours later, she had no remembrance of them, but she felt anxious and scared.


	2. Interlude

**Really short chapter, but it's more a 'in between' chapter. The next one will definately be longer. 'Katherine' returns to school, Damon makes his first appearance and we'll start to find out more about Katherine Gilbert's life. While 'Katherine' - Elena - starts to regain some of her memories. I really hope you like it! It's the first time I try to write a mistery story but I have it well planned out so it should be okay.**

**Please leave some reviews, I'd love to hear your opinions about my story!**

**Interlude**

'Katherine' woke up the next morning with a splitting headache and immediately called a nurse to give her something for the pain. A few hours later, after having what passed for breakfast in a hospital, she was watching TV and waiting anxiously for the visiting hours to begin.

At 10:30, punctual like a clock, two pretty girls made their way inside the room she was staying in. The first one was blonde and blue-eyed, almost Barbie-like in her appearance, while the other one had bronze skin, dark hair and green eyes. They were both wearing the latest fashion in designer clothes and they were obviously used to it because they appeared perfectly comfortable in it.

"Katherine!" The blonde said with an acute tone. "Oh sweety, look at you" She said, hugging her closely to herself. She felt a little awkward, hugging a complete stranger - as far as she was concerned at least - but she let her, not wanting to be rude.

"Caroline, let her breath!" the mocha-skinned girl said to the blonde. "You know what Mrs G told us. She doesn't remember anything. She doesn't remember _us_."

Caroline immediately let her go with a frown on her face. "I know" She said towards the other girl - probably Bonnie - then turning towards her, she said "I'm sorry Katherine. I know you don't remember us but we're your best friends and we were so worried about you. What were you doing at the Lake House so late?". 'Katherine' wondered how many times she would be asked that question.

"I don't know." She said in response, shrugging her shoulders.

"Well, of course you don't". Caroline said with a giggle.

"What Caroline is trying to say is that it's really strange, the fact that nobody had any idea that you would be there..."

"But let's not talk about that, okay?" Caroline interrupted with a mischievous smile. "We called your parents and told them that you would be completely ours for today. We have so much to tell you. But first..." She started to rummage into her bag and retrieved a beauty case and a curly iron from it before continuing "Make over. You look so pale, and you have shadows under your eyes. And that big, purple bruise on your forehead...so doesn't look good on you. You may not remember it, but you would never be caught up dead looking like this." Caroline finished, a hopeful look on her face.

"All right. Do your magic" 'Katherine answered with a smile. "So, I'm popular, right?" She asked then.

Bonnie smiled at her before answering "The most popular girl at school. Every girl wants to be you and every guy wants to be with you" She finished with a grin.

'Katherine' laughed slightly, but felt a little uncomfortable. She didn't know why but the girl they were describing didn't sound like her, didn't feel like her. She just wished she could regain her memories, then everything would make sense.

Caroline started with the makeup while Bonnie proceeded to give her a manicure. Then it was the turn of her hair. Two hours of prodding and probing at her and they showed her the final result. 'Katherine' looked at her reflection in the mirror and suppressed a gasp. Her hair were cascading perfectly in long curls around her face, her eyes were lined with a black pencil and dark eye-shadow, making them appear bigger and doe-like while her lips were tinted with a clear lip-gloss, making them look more plump. She looked...beautiful and sexy. She had never thought about herself as sexy - or at least she didn't feel she did since she couldn't remember - but now, even wearing a hospital gown, she felt...desirable.

She smiled at Caroline and Bonnie in gratitude, thinking for the first time since she had woken up yesterday that maybe losing her memory wasn't such a bad thing if she had friends like them to help her remember.

* * *

After a week spent at the hospital she was finally free to return home. Her parents, her sister and brother came everyday to visit her and she had also been visited by some of her classmates and her boyfriend.

Both her parents and her best friends had spent the week trying to recap her life, and now she finally felt like she was starting to get comfortable in it.

The remaining weeks before school started were spent relaxing, and trying to get acclimated with her things.

Her bedroom was huge, when she saw it the first time she couldn't believe her eyes. She hadn't realized how rich her parents were until she set foot inside the house. It was a neoclassical two and a half story house with a portico supported by white columns, big windows, expensive furniture and even a swimming-pool outside.

And her wardrobe. It was unbelievable how many clothes she owned, all perfectly organized inside a walking closet. And it was all designer clothes. Chanel, Gucci, Dolce &amp; Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Chou etc. She couldn't believe that everything inside was hers. She was almost afraid to touch it.

Now it was Sunday, a day before school started and she was browsing through the photos inside her Facebook page, trying to memorize the faces she would meet tomorrow. There were a lot of photos with Bonnie and Caroline, with her sister, some with her brother and some with her parents and with her swimming team. A lot of them were team photos but a great number of them were of her and the coach, one Damon Salvatore, an incredibly attractive man in his mid-twenties with raven hair and magnetic blue eyes. Damon - as Katherine seemed to call him, not Mr Salvatore or Coach Salvatore - was also her English teacher. Maybe it was because it was her coach first and foremost but it seemed they had a close relationship.

A girl appeared often in the photos too. She was part of the swimming team beside being a cheerleader. She was very pretty with a devious smile on her face, blonde hair and blue eyes. But they didn't seem to get along if the many snarky messages exchanged between the two of them were anything to go by.

Then there were the photos with her boyfriend, Matt Donovan, a swimmer too. Matt was an attractive guy with blonde hair, baby-blue eyes and an infectious smile. Unfortunately they seemed to be going through a tough period because Matt had come visiting only a handful of times since she had been back from the hospital and only once when she had been in the hospital.

Her Facebook page couldn't tell her everything though, so she wondered if maybe she kept a diary somewhere since she knew for certain that she loved to write and she had the best grades in the entire school in English.

She wondered for a moment where she might have hidden a diary and took a look around her. There was the desk, with books and notebooks scattered all over its surface. Maybe in one of its drawers? She was able to open two of the three but there wasn't anything important in either of them. The third one was locked and she had no idea where the key was. She shook her head and give up for the moment, hoping that the diary - if even there was one - was somewhere else. She decided to try the closet, just in case. Maybe there was some hidden compartment she hadn't noticed before. She tried behind every single article but there was nothing. She was just about to give up when she noticed a floorboard slightly offset like someone - probably herself - had tried to put it back in its place in a hurry. She came closer cautiously and shifted the floorboard even more before putting her hand inside it. After some touching around, she was finally able to retrieve the little book inside. She smiled once she saw it. It was definitely a diary.

She opened it immediately at about halfway through but frowned, confused when she noticed what it was written in it.

_24 January 2010_

_C is still upset. She should just get over it. _

'Katherine' reread the two single sentences on the otherwise blank page but she wasn't more enlightened than before for it. She tried to check some of the other pages in her diary but they were all similar to that one. Two - sometimes three - cryptic sentences that didn't make the least sense to her.

She found another one that intrigued her for some reason even if she had no idea what it meant. It was one of the last sentences she had written, of about four months ago, just a few days before the end of the last school year.

_13 June 2010_

_I finally did it today. It didn't go at all how I was expecting, though. I'm going to ruin him for that._

'Katherine' tried to understand what it could possibly mean but she had absolutely no idea. Nothing she did sparked her memory in any way. But she had written those things down, she should remember something about it right? Instead, she didn't. They absolutely made no sense to her. And surely she hadn't make things easier for herself. Who writes things like those in a diary? Herself apparently.

And who the hell was the person that she wanted to ruin? And for what? What had this guy done that was so awful? Why she had at one point wanted to ruin him?

She shook her head and decided that there was no use in trying to understand the strange things she had written in this diary. She could hope her memories would return soon. She put the diary back in its place and decided that it was time for her to go to bed. Tomorrow she would start school again and she needed to be ready.


End file.
